In Humility...

 Philippians 2:3b

...in humility consider others better than yourselves.

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When one has heard enough, and consistently, "very good", "good job", and/or "congratulations" most of his/her life--well earned or not--s/he can't help but think that s/he truly deserves it. And one thinks that we s/he gets it all the time, s/he's a natural at being excellent already, and then forget that there are others out there who could do far better than s/he could.

And we think only the world at large acts this way--performance-oriented work environments, schools that nurture competitive nature in their students, sibling rivalries. Guess what? This is true even for believers. Christians who served longer in the ministry, who are considered leaders, ironically hold so much pride about their calling in the body of Christ. People who grew up in Christian homes think they're far better in their walk with God than those who met the Lord while they were in school, or when they were much older, or just yesterday. Most Christians believe they are better simply because they are Christian; because they have a relationship with Jesus. However, Paul implored--and continues to implore us!--through the Word to consider others better than ourselves, and if that's not enough, he said to do it in humility. Talk about emphasizing a point!

No, it's not normal for us to be humble. That was, still is, the original sin. Satan, the most beautiful angel in heavens, was thrown into the fiery pit because of his pride; he wanted to be better, bigger than God. He doesn't think that God is better than him, no. He thinks he can be better than God. And he's doing the same thing to us TODAY: to fall into the same lie he created because he doesn't want to be alone in hell. Maybe not in competition with God--but against the rest of the world. Because sin has entered in our lives, what is normal for us is to be prideful--to think we're cut above the rest, and to look down on others--that's simply our sinful nature.

Thank Jesus we have been redeemed from the life of sin! "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" We no longer need to live a life in pride. Of course it doesn't happen over night that we become humble--there's the transforming grace that begins to work in our lives. But why is humility so important? Why do we need to consider others better than ourselves?

Jesus, the Son of God, King of kings, the one deserved to be prideful and arrogant, humbled himself. And in so many situations did He do so.

In Matthew 21:1-11 He arrived on a colt, confirming Zechariah 9:9 "See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

Read John 13:1-17 and you will see how the King of kings washed the feet of his subjects.

Mark 10:45
"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

You wanna know why it's really important? It's important because our goal is to be Christ-like in every single way, every single day, we see here that humility is a character of Christ.

If you look around the world today, we are being taught to take pride of the good characteristics and qualities we posses. But the greatest thought to take hold of to remind us to be humble is that apart from Christ, we are nothing; that is in Christ that we find significance--not from ourselves.

So... when you encounter someone in the office, school or church today, consciously live out this thought regardless of the situation: HE/SHE IS BETTER THAN I AM. And I AM NOTHING IF NOT FOR CHRIST. You don't need to find any other reason just to be humble--just think about Jesus. And in humility, consider all the others better than you.